Material Flow Accounts (MFA)
The material flow accounts show the physical exchange process between society and nature. The flow of materials is described in four key flows: biomass, metal ores, non metal minerals and fossil fuels.
Out of the overall material input (domestic extraction plus imports), domestic extraction accounts for somewhat more than 66%, with non metal minerals accounting for the largest share. More than 20% of the material input – primarily mineral and biotic raw materials, timber as well as semi-finished and finished goods – is destined for export.
A not insignificant proportion of the used materials is returned to nature in the form of emissions or waste, or is applied deliberately (for example as fertiliser). Some three quarters of the overall volume of materials are non-renewable raw materials (coal, crude oil, natural gas, mineral materials). This means that only one quarter of the material flow belongs to renewable raw materials such as biomass.
In Austria the direct material input (DMI) rose by more than 15% from 1995 to 2009; domestic material consumption (DMC) as well, by 5%. As, during the same period, gross domestic product grew by 32%, resource efficiency (GDP/DMC) increased significantly. The resource efficiency indicates how much economic achievement in Euro per ton material deployment is gained - €1.38 million in 2009 compared to €1.10 million in 1995.
During the compilation of the account for 2008, as part of discussions on the Austrian resource efficiency action plan, it was found that the reported amounts of mineral raw materials are expected to be underestimated, especially natural stone, gravel and sand. Thus in the project „Ressourcendaten – Verbesserung des statistischen Datenmaterials im Bereich natürlicher Ressourcen“ (PDF, 1 MB), commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labour as well, was therefore in common with the IFF (Faculty for Interdisciplinary Studies - Social Ecology at the Alpen Adria University), the national statistical data collection of resources in the form of material flows further optimized and raised to the highest possible level. An estimate of mineral resources for the period 1995 to 2008 was made. This period was chosen as starting with 1995 (Austria's accession to the EU), European Economic classifications NACE (sectors) and PRODCOM (goods) are used for the application of basic statistics and present it in a consistent time series. For this reason, in graphs and tables, the time series is represented by 1995 to 2009. The results have been recalculated back to 1960 with the help of computational models, the results tables can be found in the appendix of the Project Report 2009 (only a German version available).
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